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Experts warn that the Indian tiger, despite figures showing the population has stabilized, faces an increasing threat of extinction due to a lack of genetic diversity.

Researchers from the UK’s Cardiff University, in collaboration with the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, have issued a warning that, based on their research, they believe that up to 93% of genetic diversity in India’s tiger population has been lost.

The research team, aware of the massive threat posed by humans in terms of both habitat loss and hunting, sort to compare the genetic data from modern tigers with animals from the London Natural History Museum’s tiger collection shot during the time of the British Raj (1858-1947).

They found a high level of genetic variants in those historic specimens that is no longer present in today’s tiger population, something that for India’s tigers points to an ever increasing threat of extinction.

“A lot of the diversity has gone because the population has collapsed as a result of the threat to habitat,” Professor Mike Buford of the School of Biosciences at Britain’s Cardiff University is quoted as saying. “What genetic diversity is left only exists in pockets. The Indian government is saying things are reasonably all right because the population has stabilized. But we are saying that is only part of the story.”

Late last year, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) came out with good news that tiger populations in India had increased significantly and that in places like Nagarahole and Bandipur National Parks, tigers were actually at what is known as saturation level, where young tigers are forced to seek wider territories beyond the protected national park spaces.

The last census of tigers in India, which was carried out in 2011, suggested a population of around 1,700 tigers. That’s a dramatic reduction from a century ago when the numbers were more like 100,000, but represents a stabilization or even slight increase on previous recent estimates. Yet the Cardiff research team say that while population number decline has tailed off, a fact lauded by the Indian government, it is wrong to think that numbers alone reflect the health of a species’ population.

In fact, what appears to be happening is that habitat isolation is resulting in an increased risk of the tigers becoming inbred and that this could ultimately make them more prone to disease and may increase the threat of extinction severely if the problem isn’t tackled soon.

Indeed this latest research, published in the Proceedings of The Royal Society B journal, estimates that the territory the tigers now occupy has declined more than 50% during the population’s last three generations. They estimate that mating only occurs in 7% of the tiger’s historical territory.

So what to do?

India’s current strategy for tiger conservation, detailed here, centers on the National Tiger Conservation Authority and the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 and concerns itself with managing the populations in specially cultivated areas. The 1972 act established 66 national parks and 421 wildlife sanctuaries, including large tracts of tiger habitat. These were later increased to 102 national parks, 515 wildlife sanctuaries and 44 conservation reserves and four community reserves. When poaching led to population collapse, India’s government also took steps to prevent this.

However, the research team concludes that continuing the current strategy will not work, writing in the research summary:

We conclude that ongoing strategies to maximize the size of some tiger populations, at the expense of losing others, is an inadequate conservation strategy, as it could result in a loss of genetic diversity that may be of adaptive significance for this emblematic species.

This is a sentiment echoed by tiger expert Valmik Thapar, who told the Independent that the Indian government’s preoccupation with establishing population corridors, linking one group of tigers to another, won’t work. “We don’t have the political will or the governance,” he is quoted as saying.

An emphasis, then, has to be placed not on individual population corridors but on allowing forest reserves to spread. This in turn will encourage genetic trading between the population groups, the researchers say, and is the only way that the population will begin to support itself and recover from its brush with extinction.

It is estimated that India contains up to 60% of the world’s tigers, so action to keep that population healthy is incredibly important.

On the streets of Moscow in the tens of thousands, the protesters chanted: “We exist!” Taking into account the comments of statesmen, scientists, politicians, military officials, bankers, artists, all the important and attended to figures on this planet, nothing caught the year more strikingly than those two words shouted by massed Russian demonstrators.

“We exist!” Think of it as a simple statement of fact, an implicit demand to be taken seriously (or else), and undoubtedly an expression of wonder, verging on a question: “We exist?”

And who could blame them for shouting it? Or for the wonder? How miraculous it was. Yet another country long immersed in a kind of popular silence suddenly finds voice, and the demonstrators promptly declare themselves not about to leave the stage when the day — and the demonstration — ends. Who guessed beforehand that perhaps 50,000 Muscovites would turn out to protest a rigged electoral process in a suddenly restive country, along with crowds in St. Petersburg, Tomsk, and elsewhere from the south to Siberia?

In Tahrir Square in Cairo, they swore: “This time we’re here to stay!” Everywhere this year, it seemed that they — “we” — were here to stay. In New York City, when forced out of Zuccotti Park by the police, protesters returned carrying signs that said, “You cannot evict an idea whose time has come.”

Everywhere, the “we” couldn’t be broader, often remarkably, even strategically, ill defined: 99%of humanity containing so many potentially conflicting strains of thought and being: liberals and fundamentalists, left-wing radicals and right-wing nationalists, the middle class and the dismally poor, pensioners and high-school students. But the “we” couldn’t be more real.

This “we” is something that hasn’t been seen on this planet for a long time, and perhaps never quite so globally. And here’s what should take your breath away, and that of the other 1%, too: “we” were never supposed to exist. Everyone, even we, counted us out.

Until last December, when a young Tunisian vegetable vendor set himself alight to protest his own humiliation, that “we” seemed to consist of the non-actors of the twenty-first century and much of the previous one as well. We’re talking about all those shunted aside, whose lives only weeks, months or, at most, a year ago, simply didn’t matter; all those the powerful absolutely knew they could ride roughshod over as they solidified their control of the planet’s wealth, resources, property, as, in fact, they drove this planet down.

For them, “we” was just a mass of subprime humanity that hardly existed. So of all the statements of 2011, the simplest of them — “We exist!” — has been by far the most powerful.

Name of the Year: Occupy Wall Street

Every year since 1927, when it chose Charles Lindbergh for his famed flight across the Atlantic, Time magazine has picked a “man” (even when, on rare occasions, it was a woman like Queen Elizabeth II) or, after 1999, a “person” of the year (though sometimes it’s been an inanimate object like “the computer” or a group or an idea). If you want a gauge of how “we” have changed the global conversation in just months, those in the running this year included “Arab Youth Protestors,” “Anonymous,” “the 99%,” and “the 1%.” Admittedly, so were Kim Kardashian, Casey Anthony, Michele Bachman, Kate Middleton, and Rupert Murdoch. In the end, the magazine’s winner of 2011 was “the protester.”

Just a note to let you know that over the Thanksgiving Holiday I’ll be attempting to move “2012 The Awakening” to another server and with any luck it’ll be a smooth transition without much downtime. Once I initiate the move, it could take up to 48hrs to get back online at the new address and when that happens there will be an automatic redirect taking you from here to the new address. Which, will most likely be AscendingStarseed.com since 2012TheAwakening.com isn’t available at this time.

In the mean time during the transfer you can check with both sister sites for new posts and on Facebook at Facebook.com/AscendingStarseed/

When Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans united to protect peaceful protestors from police brutality, the Occupy Wall St movement joined the global revolution already on fire and awaiting for American’s to awaken & unite. 2012 The Awakening Revolution OWS is dedicated to the spirit of unity, love and a focus on maintaining peace as we witness the renaissance of a global revolution.

Last week after witnessing veterans join forces to protect OWS protestors it became clear we’re witnessing the renaissance of an American revolution synchronizing with the evolution of a global revolution. It’s too bad everyone’s under so much stress because it’s getting interesting and would certainly be more enjoyable to watch develop in a better mood. On the other hand, if we weren’t all so unhappy, the energy wouldn’t be alive to spark a revolution!

So when you have a moment please check-out the new website 2012 The Awakening Revolution OWS, focused entirely on the OWS revolution as it continues to grow and evolve. Also please keep in mind this is a resource for everyone, if you have a link to a video or article of interest please leave it in the comment field for consideration to be posted.

Thanks again for your readership and continued support! Mahalo, Annette

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This body of work is impossible to keep alive without the compassion and generosity of readers, your continuing support is ALWAYS greatly appreciated to help cover operating expenses. Peace, love and kindest regards to all! Mahalo...

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